Cuts Keep Plum Tree Refuge Without Full-time Staffer

February 10, 1995|By JENNIFER ANDES Daily Press

POQUOSON — The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service wants to be a good neighbor in Poquoson, but federal cutbacks are blocking its efforts.

Joe McCauley, acting manager of Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach, said he had expected by now to have a full-time staff member assigned to Plum Tree Island National Wildlife Refuge in Poquoson. "We had a list to pick from," McCauley said. "We were really serious about it."

The Clinton administration's efforts to streamline government, however, meant Back Bay, which administers Plum Tree, had to reduce its work force from the equivalent of 12 to nine full-time positions, McCauley said.

That meant new positions, such as the one at Plum Tree, had to be shelved, he said.

While more cutbacks are likely regionwide during the next five years, McCauley still wants someone at Plum Tree. "It's not been abandoned, and I will continue to fight for it," he said of the position.

For now, he is considering other options. One, he said, is to have a wildlife service representative from Back Bay devote one or two days a month to Plum Tree, possibly teaching classes to Poquoson students, either in class or at the refuge. Cutbacks may prohibit that as well, he said.

McCauley's interest in hastening efforts at Plum Tree stems from controversy during the past two years over the wildlife service's plans to expand the 3,275-acre refuge.

That controversy "got people talking about the refuge," he said. "I want to capitalize on that interest before it wanes totally."

The wildlife service in 1993 released its proposal to acquire 2,119 acres, much of which is private marshland and undevelopable, adjacent to the existing refuge - a process that could take as long as 20 years.

Residents' responses to the proposed expansion ranged from full support to vehement opposition to any further federal involvement in the city.

Those in support wanted the expansion to preserve the wildlife area and prevent Owen Bellamy, who died recently, from logging a 300-acre tract he owns adjacent to the refuge.

Residents opposed have said they fear the wildlife service will condemn their land and interfere with hunting and overall use of the land.

So strong is their opposition that these residents led a successful campaign to oust Councilman W. Crosby Forrest III, one of four members of the City Council in support of the wildlife service, during 1994 elections. Gregory A. McDaniel won Forrest's seat in the Eastern Precinct.

A wildlife service staff member assigned to Plum Tree might be able to meet with these and other residents and "be really a good neighbor," McCauley said.

He eventually wants to establish an office at Plum Tree, possibly in the 1,700-square-foot building on a former test site NASA Langley Research Center abandoned last summer, and which is within the proposed expansion area.

The wildlife service maintains it will not condemn any land and has hired Pioneer Title of Virginia Beach to survey the 260-acre former test site and determine its owners.

McCauley suggested a wildlife service representative might be able to teach a class beginning this fall, possibly on the refuge itself, how it became a refuge and the significance of the national wildlife refuge system.

School Superintendent Raymond E. Vernall said he has not spoken with representatives from the wildlife service recently, but that he would be open to working with them.

MANAGER SEARCH

A new manager for Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia Beach should be named this month, says Dale Coggeshall, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's associate manager for refuges in the southern region.

Coggeshall said he is interviewing candidates. He would not provide specifics, such as the number of candidates.

The position came open in September when manager Tony Leger was promoted to realty officer for the wildlife service in Hadley, Mass.